Just 20 million Americans watched Biden’s State of the Union, up from 38.2 million last year.

Only about 23 million viewers tuned in to hear President Biden deliver his State of the Union, an annual address to Congress and the nation, delivered with much fanfare.

Fox News drew the most viewers, 4.57 million, according to Neilsen’s Fast Ratings, which could rise as final data is compiled. ABC came in second with 4.3 million, MSNBC with 3.7 million, CBS with 3.5 million, CNN with 2.3 million, and Fox Broadcasting with 1.6 million.

Among the coveted 25-54 demographic most valued by advertisers, ABC finished in first place with around 1.06 million viewers, followed by NBC (978,000 viewers), Fox News Channel (793,000 viewers), CBS (675,000 viewers). viewers), CNN (617,000 viewers), MSNBC (479,000 viewers) and Fox Broadcasting (482,000 viewers).

Early ratings show a big decline in viewership this year, even as there were a number of made-for-TV Republican outbursts throughout the speech; last year, Biden’s speech drew 38 million.

However, when the final ratings are released, the 2023 State of the Union audience could reach 26.9 million, according to Forbes.

DailyMail.com asked Americans across the country if they would tune in on Tuesday.

Cory Griffin was only half listening. “I usually catch up with him the next day,” he said, as he stood on the Las Vegas strip waiting for the famous fountain display in front of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino.

It’s too dry. It’s not attractive.

This year she is on vacation with all the distractions of Las Vegas around her. But even at his Chicago home, the 42-year-old business analyst usually catches up with him the next day, when he’s been analyzed and packaged into digestible highlights.

“When Trump was in office he was more unpredictable,” he added. “Even then I didn’t need to see it live.”

Perhaps it’s unfair to ask people in the multicolored strip of Las Vegas, with its mini Eiffel Tower, pirate ships and volcano exhibits (from 7 pm to 11 pm in front of the Mirage) if they can get away from the lights to spend over an hour to see an old man in a navy suit deliver a speech from a podium.

But if Las Vegas represents one end of the nation’s entertainment spectrum, and Washington, DC, with its political nerds who see the State of the Union as their Oscars, Super Bowl, and royal wedding rolled into one, the numbers suggest that much from the United States is moving away. big political arenas.

Bill Clinton’s 1993 speech drew nearly 67 million viewers, according to data compiled by Statista.

The numbers have been on a downward trend ever since, with occasional swings for 9/11 and Trump.

Last year, Biden drew 38.2 million viewers. That was respectable compared to the $26.9 million she managed in 2021 (technically a speech to a joint session of Congress).

That’s still a decent audience and the White House has made it clear that it sees it as a key way to get its message across, bypassing the filter of newspapers, websites, newsletters, memes or tweets.

“I think the State of the Union will have an opportunity to speak directly to the American people, not just Congress, to talk about what we’ve done… what you’ve done in the last two years and how you see the future of this country’, said Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday.

At least you’ll be speaking directly to Leo Carter, a retired law enforcement officer from Tennessee.

“I’m one of those guys who takes me across the street,” he said, a cigar in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other as he basked in the last rays of the afternoon sun on the Las Vegas sidewalk. Don’t make me drive around the block to get there.

The State of the Union is a chance to get it right out of the president’s mouth, no fuss, no twists.

But that’s off for Sheila, a visitor

“I’d rather watch anything else,” said a Las Vegas visitor from Ohio. Particularly this president.

There’s a quiet but growing train of thought that suggests it’s time to reboot. It was as recently as Jimmy Carter’s presidency that the State of the Union was sometimes delivered simply in letter form.

Its format is not set in stone, as Josh Tyrangiel, creator of HBO’s ‘Vice News Tonight,’ wrote in the New York Times last week.

“The State of the Union is the last great opportunity for regular communication in American politics, but its power is diminishing every year because the mode of presentation is outdated,” he wrote.

“Where else in modern life does anyone try to rally people around their ideas with a constantly interrupted, visually desolate 60-minute rant?”

Why not intersperse Biden’s words with video clips of the lives the president was talking about? Or learn from tightly choreographed Apple product launches?

Why does the data have to be numbers from the mouth of the president, when the technology exists to generate visual interpretations of the numbers, broadcast directly to viewers’ homes?

“Look how effective a similar strategy was for the January 6 committee,” he said.

“Not only did he incorporate video, but he also changed the structure of congressional hearings from a buffet of landscape-munching viewers to a meticulous storytelling machine.”

Whether that would make a difference is a different matter.

“You’re telling me they’d give Joe Biden sex,” asked Chad Joseph, who was visiting Last Vegas from Minnesota. He paused briefly before laughing and laughing and laughing.